Chapter 19 - Unforeseen Consequences
It was a restless girl that was shepherded into the dusty room which seemed to be the caretaker's office. Inside it, out of the many things she had expected—a lot of which also happened to be there—one, or rather two things stuck out in particular. Sporting a welcoming grin, she was greeted by the familiar red-haired menaces known as the Weasley twins, sitting on a bench in the corner of the office.
She raised an eyebrow at them and got a sheepish look in return. She guessed she should feel satisfied that the pranksters who had kicked off this chain of unfortunate events ended up getting in trouble along with her, but right now, she really mostly only cared what happened to Harry. Was he going to be okay? Did he need her help? Was there anything she could do?
The caretaker pointed them over to a set of wooden chairs in the corner next to the Weasley twins with a grunt, and she and Malfoy reluctantly shuffled over to sit down. He pinned all of them under a look for several seconds, then he said, "As much as I'd like to begin your detention right now, I'll have to deal with you later. I need to attend a staff meeting right now."
He paused, and glared at them, and at the Weasleys in particular. "Don't go getting any ideas."
With that, he slammed the door shut, followed by several clunks, as he seemed to lock several bolts to secure the door.
Iris' eyes flicked from the door to the Weasley twins, then over to Malfoy who was standing in the corner. Iris' expression darkened. With all her planning, everything she had done to prevent exactly this from happening, and yet, Malfoy had gotten Harry hurt. And she had been unable to do anything to stop it. She had failed. He caught her gaze, held it for a second, and then averted his eyes.
This wasn't good. Harry might need her help! She couldn't wait for the creepy caretaker to return, she needed to find a way out of this place now. But he had taken their wands, and probably the twin's wands too, not that she could use them anyway. So much for her first impulse of using Alohomora on the bloody door. Her eyes flitted across the room, but she couldn't see anything that would symbolize either unlocking something, or even tearing down the door. There were some chains on the walls, a large filing cabinet which appeared to be locked, a desk with not much on it, yet another locked drawer, there wasn't even a pen here.
That left only the final option. One she had wanted to avoid, especially since there were witnesses here. Well, even more witnesses, she guessed, especially ones that didn't know.
But try as she might, the only option she could come up with was to utilize the shadows somehow. She supposed Malfoy was fine, he had already seen too much anyway, she could only hope that he'd play along this time, and that she wouldn't have to escalate even further. She didn't think she could actually pull through on her threat if Malfoy decided to call her bluff a second time. Especially because some part of her still remembered how he had been her first friend at one point.
That left the issue of the twins. There was no way of her using the shadows to get out of here without them at least getting some sort of idea of what she had done.
"Well... This is awkward..." came the voice of one of the twins, jolting Iris out of her thoughts.
"Fancy seeing you again! You wouldn't happen to have been caught breaking one school rule or another, completely unrelated to a certain event involving a kitten?"
Iris gave him a deadpan stare. The Weasley's face drooped. "Yeah, I thought not. Look, we're sorry. We didn't mean for you to get in trouble with old Filch here. It was just supposed to be a harmless prank."
"Yeah? Well thanks to your 'harmless prank', I'm now stuck here while Harry is in the hospital wing!" Iris exclaimed.
That drew a pair of gasps. "Harry is what? What happened? It's not because of... is it?" one of them asked wide-eyed.
Iris growled. "That tosser happened," she said, jerking her head in Malfoy's direction. "He found us while I was stuck on the ceiling and Harry was trying to help me."
Twin glares turned onto the blonde boy, who seemed to shrink a bit.
Iris turned and looked back at the twins thoughtfully. Was there a way she could swear them to secrecy? Could she trust them? Maybe she could extract some sort of leverage from them, in exchange for taking them with her?
"I have to go! Harry is hurt, I need to be with him."
They stared at her thoughtfully.
"What do you think, George?" said presumably Fred.
"We'd love to help, and we could help you get there if we got out of here, but there is a tiny problem..." began George.
Fred looked down, sighed, and then admitted, "He kind of took our wands. Well, unless he left you with yours?"
Iris sighed and shook her head.
"Yeah. And as far as we know, there aren't any secret passageways in here..."
"What if I had a way to get us out?" Iris interjected.
"We're listening," came the synchronous reply. God, how did they do that? She'd never been that in-sync with Harry.
"The problem is, it's a secret. It's... well, the kind of knowledge that gets people killed... At least, that's what Professor Lupin said," she whispered.
"So... If you want to come with me, I need to know I can trust you."
She was banking on the fact that they wanted out of here as well. If they just turned her down, she still couldn't go on her own without them seeing. And she wanted to go at all costs, so her demand was kind of hollow. But they didn't know that.
"We're trustworthy, honest!" said Fred.
"We shall swear ourselves to eternal secrecy," added George with a grin.
Iris sighed. "Yeah, you'll have to forgive me if I don't quite believe you."
"Is a prankster's honor not good enough for you?" said Fred, sounding hurt.
"Well, I guess I'll just go without you then..." she said and turned, walking towards the door.
One twin looked at the other, and just as she was about to reach it, they shouted, "Hold on!"
Iris suppressed a smirk.
"What if we let you know one of our secrets in exchange?" said George.
"One might even say our biggest secret!" Fred added.
"One that would definitely get us in trouble if people found out..." continued George.
That sounded a lot better. Iris turned back towards them, raised an eyebrow, and said, "I'm listening."
They looked at each other again, then Fred said, "Well... I guess it's easier to show you..." and beckoned her over.
Curious, Iris approached as they fumbled with something in their robes, but then stopped and glanced over at Malfoy.
Iris followed their gaze, then sighed. "Oh, don't worry about him. You're not gonna spy, are you, Malfoy?" she asked in a pointed tone, causing him to avert his gaze towards the far wall.
Fred raised an eyebrow at that, but continued. He withdrew a piece of parchment from his robes and started unfolding it.
"This is how we found you in the corridor. It's also the reason why we need to get out of here."
Iris leaned over to see several lines, shapes, and moving text drawn on the large parchment.
As she recognized the names written on it, she drew in a breath. "Is that..."
"Us, yeah," came the whispered reply.
"And does that show the castle, or..." Iris trailed off as she followed the depiction of what must be corridors.
"All of it."
"Everyone,"
"Everywhere,"
"At any time."
Iris kept staring at the map mesmerized for some time. This... was kind of awesome. She guessed this was a more than sufficiently valuable secret to keep them quiet about the shadows.
"Problem is, we forgot to clear it."
"You can tap it with your wand and turn it blank with a passphrase."
"But Filch kind of took our wands before we could do it, and now we're worried he might find it and figure out what it is, well, if we don't get out of here..."
Well, so much for that. Even though the thought had crossed her mind, she couldn't go back on her deal now. If they lost the map, she'd lose her leverage.
"Right, then how about this, you don't tell anyone how I got us out, and I don't tell anyone about this. Deal?"
"Deal!" said Fred.
"But what about him?" asked George, with a nod at Malfoy.
Iris turned towards said boy. "If anyone asks, we were never here," she said with a pointed look at him.
Then, after pondering for a moment, she added, "If Snape asks, we left through there," while pointing at the door.
With that, she turned back to look at the Weasleys with a serious expression.
"Okay, I need you to trust me here. I can get us out, but I gotta warn you. It's gonna be scary. I can't really explain it, other than you won't be able to see much besides shadows, you won't be able to speak, and it's gonna feel really weird at first. You think you can handle that?"
They blinked at her, processing that. It looked like they definitely had been expecting something different. Finally, they smiled.
"Don't worry about us..."
"...we're Gryffindors after all!"
"Just don't say I didn't warn you."
With that, she reached for the shadows, and peeled open a rift in the corner of the room. Their eyes had gone wide, and they were shifting away from the darkness.
"Uhm... are you sure about this?" asked Fred with apprehension.
"All you have to do is follow my shadow to the rift on the other side, and I'll get you out. It should only take a few seconds."
They exchanged a couple of worried looks, and finally, they seemed to gather up their courage, and nodded.
"Let's go." It seemed, that all humor had vanished from his voice.
Iris stepped into the breach, and after some hesitation, so did the twins. They seemed to look around the shadow realm, she couldn't make out their facial expressions, but she assumed they were worried. She waved her arms, trying to get their attention. When they finally waved back, she made her way over to the door, and beckoned them closer with a hand gesture.
As she looked at the door, she could once again see both the reflection of Filches office as well as the reflection of the hallway at the same time. The problem was, that wasn't all she could see. Out there, in the hallway, stood the small creature that the caretaker had kept calling in, and it was looking around the corridor with a shifty expression. Also, it seemed to be kind of translucent. She didn't know what to make of that, but she was pretty sure, that it would spot their shadows if they made their way out of the door. Bugger.
Well, there was nothing for it, she supposed she would have to find another way out then. The shadow realm was nothing if not filled with options, permeated with gaps to slip between rooms and through doors. There had to be another way out of here. She took a look around. Behind the office, through gaps in the reflection of the room, she could make out a narrow path. So much for there not being any secret passageways here. She beckoned the shadows of the twins over to the gaps in the wall, and started to squeeze through. They found themselves in a dark stone corridor, that seemed all the more trippy by the fact it was so dark, which made it look like they were in the center of a cross shaped stone tunnel, that seemed all too identical on each side. Iris took a few steps down the tunnel, covering a large distance, with the twins on her heels. Finally, she made it to another wall, this one sporting even wider gaps, so squeezing through proved rather trivial.
She found herself in a dark and withered corridor, illuminated entirely by low eerie moonlight that seemed to shine in from cavities in the ceiling. Where they this close to the roof? She had no idea what part of the castle this was, but as far as she could tell, there wasn't anyone here. She could make out the hesitant motions of the twins following her into the corridor, and decided to give them a break. She had no idea if they were doing okay, or for how long still. Reaching out, she pulled open another rift which took quite a while in the moonlit corridor and stepped out, beckoning the twins through.
"Merlin's soggy underpants! What in the world was that?" exclaimed one of them. She still hadn't figured out how to tell them apart.
"Uh, well I call it the shadow realm, and I'm actually not really sure what it is, all I know is it's like the flipside of this world, and well, it allows you to go through some doors, walls and other gaps."
"Yeah, about that. Why again didn't we just go through the door then?"
"Uh, well, there was this creature on the other side, it looked like it was on the lookout for something. You know, one of those little creatures the caretaker keeps calling, tiny, big ears..."
"You mean a house-elf?" came the incredulous response.
"That's what they are called? Yeah, that. I'm pretty sure it would have spotted us, if we just went out there," Iris explained.
"So instead, I looked for another way, and found this secret passageway in his office that led us here, well, wherever the hell here is."
"Hang on, we might have a solution to that. Fred, if you would," said George, apparently.
Fred retrieved the map and proceeded to check over it. After an agonizing minute of searching he sagely concluded, "Yup, okay, we are definitely out of bounds."
Iris frowned. She let her gaze sweep the corridor but couldn't make out any portraits. "Any idea how to get to the hospital wing from here?"
They spent a few more minutes pondering the map, until George spoke up. "Uhm... This way... I think?" he said and pointed down the moonlit corridor.
Iris frowned. If that wasn't inspiring confidence. She kept looking down the hallway. Whatever part of the castle this was, it looked like it had been a very long time since anyone had been here. Well, there was nothing for it.
"Alright, let's go then. We need to get to Harry."
They shared a nod and started down the corridor. Down they went along a pathway of moonlit dusty marble. The walls had definitely seen better days. She could even make out some cobwebs. That was never a good sign.
"What do you think this part of the castle was supposed to be used for?" Iris asked.
Fred peered into a doorway on the side, and said, "Can't be anything good..."
Inside the doorway, she could make out bars of iron. Was this... a prison? Or something? That brought an even more ominous question. Why did the caretaker have a secret passageway in his office leading to this place? Did he know about it?
A sharp clang rang down the corridor, causing them to almost jump out of their skin. Iris snapped up her hand and called her trusty light, drowning the corridor in color. As far as she could see, well, there was nothing to see. Where had that noise come from? The twins were looking warily between the corridor and her light. Then Fred looked at the map and gasped.
"What is it?" asked Iris in a hushed tone.
In response came a frantic whisper. "There's a teacher here. And... he's coming this way! Quick, we have to leave!"
Iris didn't need to be told twice. She cut out her light, and they took off running down the corridor, away from the teacher, and whatever the source of the noise was. Soon, they found a staircase that led up. Hang on, if this wasn't the top floor, then where was the moonlight coming from?
On the next floor, they found rows and rows of iron bars along the sides of the large hallway, greatly increasing the prison vibes of this place. Strangely, there were no doors. It was just windows and archways completely covered with iron bars. It seemed like the only way was forward. Next to her, Fred checked the map again. "What? How? He's coming closer, keep going!"
They kept running, until they reached the end. The hallway was ending here, but both to the left as well as to the right led yet another narrow corridor.
"Which way?" Iris asked in a hushed whisper.
Fred fumbled with the map for a second, then his finger came down on it, and he hesitated.
"...No idea."
"Fine, let's go right, then," Iris decided.
For the lack of any better ideas, they followed. The corridor continued for some more time, then turned right yet again. As they made the turn, Iris gasped.
The corridor turned into a small chamber. In the ceiling was a large shaft, that seemed to stretch upwards further than she could see, through which a glistening ray of moonlight painted the floor in pale colors. Along the wall hung several iron chains, and below them was a small stone platform, just big enough for someone to lay down on it. She didn't even want to imagine what this room had been used for. But more worryingly, it was a dead end.
The twins had caught up to her and gathered next to the stone platform.
"Is he still after us?" George whispered urgently.
Fred unfolded the map, then frowned, folded over another piece of parchment, then folded it back.
"Well, I-"
George held up a hand, and they all fell silent. Down the corridor, there was a sound. Footsteps. Rapidly approaching.
As one, they dove behind the stone platform and huddled together. Iris held her breath.
The footsteps were sounding off. Too fast, too disjointed. Also, there was an audible breathing sound accompanying them. Slowly, she came to a terrifying realization. What if whatever was coming wasn't the teacher? Should she attempt to enter the shadows again? But the room was lit up in moonlight, it would take quite a while to get them deep enough to slip through, and that could give away their position...
All thoughts of shadows or plans left her when her eyes spotted something emerging from the corridor. And it definitely was a something. Not quite human, but still far too humanoid to be anything else. Tall, long emaciated limbs that were nonetheless packed with muscle, and a face that looked like a cross between a human head and a wolf...
Was... was this a werewolf?
...She had always imagined them differently.
Somehow, that was the only thought her mind could come up with, as it completely failed to comprehend the situation before her. Werewolves, or rather, humans afflicted by the Lycanthropy curse while under the full moon, as they had learned last month in Defense. Not that it made much of a difference right now, it didn't change the fact that they were utterly fucked. Even if she had her wand, werewolves were magically resistant, fast, strong, and if that wasn't enough, they had superior senses. Which meant that their cover was completely useless.
Icy terror flooded her heart as the creature raised itself up on its hind legs and released a bloodcurdling howl. Next to her, the twins bore similar expressions to her own. It seemed all of them had realized how utterly hopeless the situation was. Should she scream? Maybe give away her position, but also maybe someone would hear and come to help them? But she doubted they'd be fast enough. It was only a question of seconds until the werewolf would discover them, and then it would be over.
Werewolves were creatures of Darkness, and when fully transformed, unless under the effect of the wolfsbane potion, they would hunt without reason, the only thing they would listen to would be the hunting cries of their fellow creatures of Darkness...
Well, she guessed she could try to imitate a howl, but then it would just give away their position, right?
The werewolf fell back down onto his front limbs and drew a deep breath. Then, his head suddenly snapped in their direction, and she felt like she was staring into the yellow eyes of Death itself.
Creatures of Darkness? What if- Would that work? Well, it worked for the strange tomes, but this was an intelligent creature. Still, at this point, what did she have to lose?
As the creature took its first inevitable step towards them, she took a step of her own. The wolf broke into a terrifying sprint. Iris stepped between the twins, wrapped them into a hug, and pulled. Not just on them, but on the shadows as well. The room was far too bright for her to just open a rift in the middle of the room, but that wasn't the goal. Like a gentle embrace, she let the darkness envelop them, just like it had in the restricted section. A cold, but also kind of tingly sensation came over her.
The werewolf jumped across the stone platform and landed in front of them, his head snapped in their direction, then he sniffed, and... whined?
The terrifying beast was lumbering over them, she could feel its breath on her face, but it wasn't attacking yet. One second, it seemed to growl, and made as if to jump, the next it looked confused and backed down again. It seemed almost like its instincts were at war with its mind. Which meant they had to get the hell out of there, before it made up its mind one way or another. Breaking through her paralysis with sheer force of will, Iris yanked at the twins and nudged them towards the exit of the corridor they had come from. With slow and careful steps, they started to shuffle down the corridor, Iris taking great care to keep them completely wrapped in shadows. She pondered for a moment if she should try to open a rift, but then decided against it. Whatever was going on, it seemed like the werewolf was still a hair's breadth away from attacking them. She wasn't going to do anything that might provoke its ire.
Then, one of the twins gasped. Iris almost jumped. She tried to follow his gaze to see what had caught his attention, and found... oh. It seemed, in their hurry, they had dropped the map when diving behind the platform. Said map was right now laying behind the werewolf, which was still confusedly stalking after them, but keeping its distance. There was no way they were going back for it. It seemed like they realized this as well, as they kept shuffling onwards. Iris supposed she could just try and check the corridors again using the shadows whenever it wasn't the bloody full moon. That is, if they made it out of here alive.
Inch by inch, they edged down the corridor, the snarling beast not letting up, but also not closing in. Iris wasn't sure how much longer they could keep this up. They had made it past the fork and were now heading the other way. Suddenly, there was a noise sounding from further in the corridor. Down at the end, she could see someone standing behind a door made of metal bars. Was he trapped in this place? No, hang on. This door seemed more like an exit. Did someone come to their rescue? But how would the wolf react to their presence?
It seemed that whoever it was had similar thoughts, as the silhouette she had seen seemed to retreat further back, almost out of sight. Were... they going to leave them alone? Desperately, she tried to make her way closer to the door, the twins moving along with her, nobody daring to utter even a word. As they got close to it, the wolf seemed to notice that something was up, as it increased its whining and snarling and seemed to shuffle back and forth between them and the door. Luckily, it didn't block their path. Just as they reached the door, it suddenly opened with a loud clang.
Iris didn't waste a second and jumped through. This seemed to snap the wolf out of his confusion, and he let out a howl as he started barreling towards them. They tumbled to the ground and the last thing she saw was the lumbering form rapidly closing in on them with saliva running down its maw, until there was another Clang!
The door had slammed shut by itself, and the werewolf smacked against it. Forcing its head through the bars, it tried to snap at them, saliva flinging in all directions. Iris and the twins hurriedly scurried further back, only to be met with the grim visage of a man in purple robes, holding a wand, which was aimed at the door. His hand struck out and wrapped around her wrist, dragging her with him. He led them down the corridor, until they passed through a door, and were back in a more familiar torchlit part of the castle.
"You seem to have a talent of ending up in places you really shouldn't, Miss Potter," came the sardonic voice of their Defense professor.
"W-What was that?" asked Fred in a weak voice.
"That," he began, and then smirked at them, "was Professor Lupin."
That left them all to stare at him dumbfounded. Was he saying...
"T-that was... Do you mean- That's why he was on the-" Fred cut off as George wrapped a hand around his mouth.
His gaze fell upon the twins. "I've had enough of the two of you after the first week. You will be reporting to Professor McGonagall's office right now."
The twins glanced at each other nervously.
"Right. Now," he repeated slowly.
This served to get them to shuffle down the corridor in a hurry, leaving a worried and confused Iris behind.
"Professor Lupin... is a werewolf? But... isn't he... Wouldn't he..."
The Professor gave her a look. "It seems that someone has liberated Professor Snape's entire supply of moonstone powder, leaving him unable to finish brewing the wolfsbane potion tonight."
Iris' mind tripped over itself and crashed into the ground. What? How? How had this been her fault? She took a deep breath, as she tried to gather her bearings. She hadn't really assumed she'd get away with her stunt entirely scot-free, but...
Well, she hadn't expected the powder she had stolen to literally come back to bite her.
"As for you, Miss Potter..."
Oh crap, that's right, she had been out of bounds as well.
"You'll be serving detention with me next Saturday evening."
Well, she supposed it could have been worse.
"As well as every first Saturday of every month, for the rest of the school year."
That figured.
"Tell me, what is it that drove you to be this far out of bounds after the headmaster had specifically ordered everyone to their dorms?"
Iris gasped. With everything that happened, she had almost forgotten.
"My brother, sir. He gut hurt badly, and he's supposed to be in the hospital wing, and well, I was trying to get there, but..."
He was staring at her for several seconds, unblinking, with an unreadable expression.
"Well, then let's not waste any more time, shall we?"
With that, he took off down the hall, purple robes flowing behind him. Was he actually... Iris blinked, then stumbled after him. When it became clear they were actually heading towards the hospital wing, she let out a relieved sigh.
"T-Thank you, Professor."
She had never been quite sure what to make of him. He was one of her favorite professors in terms of how and what he taught, only dampened by the fact that she couldn't do any of the spells from his class, but something about him had always set her on edge.
But maybe, she had been worrying over nothing after all.
"I-Iris? Are you okay?"
A familiar voice jolted her out of her thoughts.
"Neville? Oh, I'm fine, uhm... are you okay? Where's Harry?"
Said boy blushed and replied "D-don't worry about me, Madam Pomfrey said it's just a sprained ankle."
He slowly sat up on the bed, then pointed over at a bed surrounded by closed curtains.
"Harry's over there. From what I heard, he's fine too."
Iris dashed over to the curtains, and tore them open, only to almost bump right into a giant beard. Gulping, she looked up, then further up, until she was met with a twinkling gaze behind half-moon glasses. Oh crap.
"Ah, Mister Potter, it appears your sister has arrived," said the headmaster sagely.
"Iris?" came Harry's confused voice from behind him. With another wary glance at the old man, she bolted past him and joined Harry's bedside.
"Harry! Are you okay?" Iris exclaimed in worry.
"I'm fine, what happened? Did you... you know? What happened with Malfoy?"
"He's got detention with Filch... Well, technically..." Iris trailed off, and threw a glance at the jovial old man who seemed to make a show of minding his own business.
"I'll tell you later," she said quickly. At his look she added, "No, I didn't get hurt. What about you, are you going to be okay?"
Harry looked down. "Madam Pomfrey said I'll have to stay the night just in case, but she expects me to be fully healed by tomorrow..."
Harry stared at her, seemingly lost in thought for a time. Then, he looked up and called out, "Sir? I'm afraid I still don't fully understand. Wouldn't him attacking Iris have been considered a breach of the Truce then?"
"Ah, well, that is where it gets complicated, I'm afraid. Due to your familial relationship, the two of you can be considered a single entity, as far as the Truce is concerned."
Iris' eyes widened. Did... that mean that if she somehow blatantly broke the Truce, and didn't get punished, she'd condemn Harry along with her? If she had known that part, she'd have been a lot more careful about her stunt with the Slytherins. Although, she supposed that she hadn't acted on anything related to the war anyway...
Something in the corner of her vision caught her eye, and she looked up. For a second, she had almost imagined the headmaster's eyes twinkling.
"Now, before I bid you a good night, I must ask. Is there anything either of you wish to tell me?"
Iris involuntarily thought back to that night in the corridor, which led her right on to the matter of her strange magic. Was how her magic worked related to how she could use the shadows? Could the headmaster maybe answer some of her questions about it? He had defeated Grindelwald, after all... But thinking about the shadows again, also made her think of what she had done to Draco. Somehow, she didn't think it was a good idea to talk about that part. That then led her thoughts right to the subsequent adventure with the werewolf. Well, apparently Professor Lupin, if what their Defense teacher had told them was true.
...Remus Lupin. Iris facepalmed and couldn't hold back a giggle. Somehow, this man's name was more on the nose than even her own.
Coming back to herself, she was met with the curious gaze of the wizened headmaster, as well as a raised eyebrow by Harry. Iris blushed at her outburst but gathered herself. Out of all the questions on her mind, this one had lingered.
"Sir? Is it really true that Professor Lupin is a werewolf?"
The headmaster's eyes widened a fraction.
"Alas, it is. Truly a most terrible disease. Nevertheless, you can rest assured knowing he locks himself tightly within the old detention wing, and usually spends his full moon nights under the influence of a wolfsbane potion courtesy of our resident potions master."
Harry's eyes were wide, and he threw her an intense look, causing Iris to blush and avert her gaze. It looked like they were going to talk about that later, too.